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The Inaugural Address I'd like to see.
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My fellow Americans, thank you for your applause. I savor the sound of it because I may not be hearing that much of it in the next few minutes or over the next four years. Because I stand before the people of this great nation and the citizens of the world to declare war, not a metaphorical war, because those don't work. We declared war on Cancer, and Cancer is still with us, we declared war on Poverty, and Poverty is still with us. I'm declaring a real war as controversial and expensive as it may be, and it will be both. I'm asking for your support in a war against fossil fuels. During World War Two, this country spent a huge amount of money (in secret) on the Manhattan project. That project yielded the first atomic weapons and ended the war in the Pacific and arguably kept the world out of another World War. In the 60's President Kennedy pledged that America would put a man on the Moon by the end of the decade. We spent a vast amount of money (that many said would be better spent on Earth) to do just that, and many of the technological benefits we enjoy today came from the money we had the vision to spent then. Those projects required money and commitment, but they did not require a conscious sacrifice by the American people.this one will. For too long we have elected members of Congress because they told us what we wanted to hear, low taxes, more jobs and a promise to fight for you against the Washington insiders. We just had a Congress and a President that promised a continuation of the American way of life. And where did it get us? It got an economy that has thrived on oil and coal, power sources that were always dirty. but had until recently been cheap. It got us an economy that spews more global-warming gases per capita that any on Earth. It got us a mindset that spent vast amounts on roads and bridges and relatively little on mass transportation. It got us a Congress bought by the fossil fuels industry, and a culture that saw two big gas-guzzling cars per family and some of the cheapest gas on the planet (and it still is even at close to $5 a gallon) as a birthright. The Vice-President in the last administration said "We can't conserve our way out of the energy crisis". Well, I'm going to use a word here you've never heard in an inaugural address. Bullshit! We can conserve and we will, and we're going to start right now. I am immediately lowering the nation's speed limit to 55 mph. That will save us millions of barrels of imported oil. I'm asking members of the new Congress to raise the federal gas tax from the current 18.4 cents a gallon to $4 a gallon in six month increments of $.50. That money will go to defray the most expensive project in the history of this planet, a project to transform this country and by example every developed country on Earth from dependency on a resource that is slowly killing us, by way of global warming and political instability in the oil producing regions, into the model of clean, cheap and dependable energy that neither harms the planet or those that live on it. I'm naming this project "Terra Nova" New Earth. Over the next few days I will be naming members of a commission made up of this country's best and brightest scientists, businessmen and scholars to head up the "Terra Nova" project. They will work on their own, with no political input, to decide the best, most efficient way to create and implement new, clean, global power for everyone. I expect this project to be funded and authorized by Congress in 30 days. I will not tolerate partisanship or parochialism in this process. I expect research to begin in 90 days, with funding in place by that time. I envision the creation of millions of new jobs and by the year 2015 I expect a clean, cheap and safe network of national high speed and clean rail transportation carrying much of the cargo and people now moved by cars and trucks. I expect breakthroughs on safe, clean nuclear power and a solution of the waste storage problem. I expect solar, wind and hydrogen to fuel the next generation of cars and homes, and I expect ships and planes to be both cleaner and more efficient. This new technology will not be patented, it will become public record so that private industry here and in other countries can move on parallel tracks. I expect Americans to embrace a time when we roll up our sleeves and show the world how industrious and inventive we are, in case they forgot, and in case we forgot ourselves I expect oil prices to drop on the news of this project, if that happens, I will expect Congress to immediately raise the federal tax on gasoline so that the retail price never drops below where it is today. I will not permit the luxury of going back to where cheap oil took us. This country is going forward in a transformation that will require hard work and sacrifice from us all. I hope today will be remembered by historians as the day America reclaimed it's place as the country other countries respect and trust. One more thing, I will not run for reelection, if I'm right about this project there's nobody who can beat me in four years. If I'm wrong, there's nobody I can beat. |
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